British Sniper Kills Top ISIS Executioner, Three Other Jihadists From Mile Away, Saves Twelve Hostages

A fighter of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) holds an ISIL flag and a weapon on a street in the city of Mosul, June 23, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer

A British sniper killed a top Islamic State executioner and three other jihadists with a single bullet from nearly a mile away, mere seconds before the jihadist was set to burn twelve hostages alive near Raqqa, Syria.

The British Special Air Service shooter reportedly used a Barett .50-caliber rifle to strike a fuel tank affixed to the ISIS fighter's back, according to the Daily Mail. Moments before the execution was to take place, the pack exploded, killing the jihadist and three other extremists, who were supposed to film the murders for a propaganda film

The Daily Star reports that the executioner had been on a US "kill list" for several months, as he and several other had been traveling around ISIS-held compounds in Syria slaughtering civilians labeled as spies. Special Forces snipers had received a tip regarding the executioner's location, and finally tracked him to a town near Raqqa.

An unnamed source told the outlet, "The SAS team moved into an overwatch position above a village where they were told the execution was going to take place. Up to 12 civilians were going to be murdered - eight men and four women. They were suspected of being spies."

The source added, "None of them were agents. The Isis killers knew that but just wanted to instil fear into the local population. The executioner gave some sort of rambling speech over a loud hailer then when he finished the SAS sniper opened fire."

While ISIS, also known as ISIL or Daesh, is losing territory in Iraq and Syria, from where it mainly operates, it still has 18,000 to 22,000 fighters there despite some 13,000 airstrikes by the international coalition, according to CIA director John Brennan.

In May, an SAS sniper took out an ISIS commander in Syria while he was teaching child soldiers how to decapitate enemies, and last December, an SAS sniper used only three bullets to kill five ISIS fighters in Iraq, according to the Daily Caller.

Last week, Christian militia in Iraq, called the Nineveh Plain Protection Units, announced it had taken back a traditionally Christian village of Badanah in in the southern Mosul countryside from ISIS with the help of the U.S.-led international coalition, according to Vocativ.com

The Assyrian-led militia also said this was their "first operation" supported by airstrikes and weapons from the international coalition, and shared pictures and a video showing their fighters with their flags in the village, which had been destroyed by Islamic State.